Box Score Marlins Battle Lynchburg in Road Tilt
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan University field hockey team battled Lynchburg College in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action Friday afternoon, matching the Hornet offense in the second half of a 3-1 defeat.
Lynchburg had several key chances in the first half off a pair of penalty corners. The Hornets took a corner at 3:59 and got three shots off but Marlin keeper Skye Swain stopped two of them while the third was blocked.
The Marlins turned away another penalty corner in the 11th minute, despite the Lynchburg offense getting the VWU back line out of position. Emma Walsh slid over to protect the goal, making a beautiful defensive save before blocking another attempt to keep the hosts off the scoreboard.
Lynchburg came into the match as the highest scoring team in the ODAC, and it was just a matter of time before the Hornets broke through the stalwart Marlin defense. Emily Dudley found Jackie Lerro to make the score 1-0 at 19:23. Lerro answered again just one minute later for her second goal of the game.
Swain and the defense found the pressure on again early in the second half as Lynchburg earned four penalty corners in the first five minutes out of the break. Swain turned away two more shots as another went wide to maintain the score at 2-0.
Lerro tallied her third goal in the 45th minute off a Lacey Elliott assist to provide a crucial insurance tally for the Hornets.
Virginia Wesleyan had a good chance to get on the board in the 48th minute as Taylor Abraszek lofted a shot off a penalty corner but Laurel Nicks reached high for the save. The ball deflected out to Julie Fassl, but her follow-up attempt went just wide.
The Marlins broke through at 65:56 to end the shutout bid for Nicks as Lindsy Smarrelli found the back of the cage for her sixth goal of the season.
Swain made 10 saves for the Marlins while Nicks finished with three stops for LC.
Lynchburg (11-3/3-1) outshot the Marlins 24-4 with a 16-3 edge in penalty corners. Virginia Wesleyan was perfect in shot efficiency, placing all four shot attempts on cage while Lynchburg managed to put only 14 shots on goal.
Virginia Wesleyan (6-6/1-2) travels to Sweet Briar College (0-10) Saturday for a 12:30 p.m. non-conference start.
